Treatment compositions, such as fabric treatments, typically comprise benefit agents such as silicones, fabric softener actives, perfumes and perfume microcapsules. The deposition of said benefit agents can often be increased by adding cationic surfactants. Unfortunately, certain cationic surfactants can induce instabilities and cause the product to thicken or gel over time.
Applicants recognized that the degree of hydrophobicity of the cationic surfactants architecture was the source of the instability and gelling problems. Applicants discovered that, for fabric softeners, in particular low pH fabric softeners, the judicious selection of a cationic hydrotrope resolved the aforementioned stability problem while maintaining product performance. While not being bound by theory, Applicants believe that the proper selection of a cationic hydrotrope that is hydrophilic enough to not associate with the softener microstructure in the bottle but still hydrophobic enough to complex and precipitate with anionic surfactant carried over from the wash. Thus, the resulting cationic hydrotrope anionic surfactant complex cannot interfere with the deposition of softener and freshness actives. As a result, fabric treatment compositions comprising such cationic hydrotropes have a surprising combination of stability and deposition efficiency. Such treatment compositions provide benefits such as improved fabric hand (including fabric feel), antistatic, and freshness.